Carlos Lauría

CPJ Senior Americas Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría, a native of Buenos Aires, is a widely published journalist who has written extensively for Noticias, the leading Spanish-language newsmagazine.
Follow him on Facebook @ CPJ en Español.

2013

With
the sudden death of CPJ Mexico Representative Mike O'Connor, 67, on Sunday,
Mexican journalists have lost one of their most formidable advocates. Mike will
be remembered as someone who was on the forefront of the struggle for press
freedom. His superb skills as an investigative journalist helped scores of reporters
across the country during a period marred by violence and censorship.

For more than a decade, courts and legislatures throughout Latin America have found that civil remedies provide adequate redress in cases of libel and slander. Over this period, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights -- an autonomous judicial institution, which is part of the human rights protection system of the Organization of American States (OAS) -- has issued key decisions supporting press freedom, including a 2004 landmark ruling that struck down a criminal defamation conviction of a Costa Rican journalist.

During a meeting with CPJ, and representatives from Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders at the president's
executive office in Montevideo, the political capital, the former member of the
leftist guerrilla group Tupamaros reflected on the upcoming congressional
debate over new broadcast legislation. "It is our duty to ensure universal
access to radio and television and contribute to freedom of information,"
Mujica added.

Carlos Lauría, CPJ's Americas senior program coordinator, provided testimony before the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of US House of Representatives on Tuesday. Lauría emphasized that violence and government harassment are the main emerging trends that illustrate the major challenges facing the press in the Western hemisphere.

The OAS extraordinary
assembly, held at the organization's headquarters in Washington, D.C. on
Friday, adopted a resolution by which the 35 member states ratified the ability
of the commission to continue receiving voluntary contributions. Analysts and
human rights advocates say the decision was a blow to countries of the
Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, known as ALBA, which have been pushing to
preclude outside funding for the IACHR.

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"Leave me in peace. Wallow
in your garbage," Brazilian Chief Justice Joaquim Barbosa said in a rage when
a reporter with one of the leading national newspapers, O Estado de Sao Paulo, tried
to ask him a question Tuesday at a meeting of the National Council of Justice
in Brasilia, the capital. Stunned by Barbosa's reaction, the journalist
demanded an explanation. "You are a clown," was the response he received from the
president of Brazil's highest court.